By Schmoel Yitzhak
Since Israel is such a major concern to the United States, how come the American president -- and his Air Force One pilots -- have yet to find Ben Gurion Airport?
How come the anti-Israel dissent propagated by Ben Gurion University’s large, leftist bloc of professors is to be tolerated but when Im Tirtzu registers dissent over the bring-down-Israel faculty, the profs scream like wounded banshees?
Why does the “Get Olmert” Circus go on and on and on, ad nauseum?
Isn’t it about time the Palestinians get it into their heads that -- as Jerusalem Post columnist Sol Stern so aptly puts it -- the refugee issue will doom the new peace-making effort.
Since Bibi Netanyahu made a huge concession when he agreed to Obama’s building freeze ‘way back when, how come the Arabs responded with absolutely nothing in return?
With that in mind, what does Uncle Sam’s leader expect to gain from another building freeze, other than yet another slap at Bibi’ well-whacked-by-Uncle Sam face?
When will the United Nations admit that its “Human Rights” division is about as one-sided as the Iranian government?
* Does the holier-than-thou New York Times know that one of the men on the Mavi Marmara spent three years in a Turkish prison for hijacking a ferry in 1996 in the Black Sea?
Then again, if the Times did know what are the odds that the anti-Turk story would even make print?
Jerusalem is getting its trolley (light rail, but it’s not so light) line so how come the ultra-modern city of Tel Aviv is lagging so far behind the nation’s capital when it comes to public transportation? (Subway, anyone?)
Do you know the answer to this headline? WOULD AN IDF WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WEST BANK MEAN A SAFE HAVEN FOR EXTREMISTS?
Surely you remember what happened in Gaza and Lebanon, or don’t you? (Visit Sedorot if you still don’t have the answer. Then again, there’s the Kfar Darom tragedy.)
Aren’t “academics” among the most supercilious bunch of misinformed degree-holders in the world? (Start with Ben Gurion University and its president.)
What is something that’s supposed-to-be but isn’t? (Answer: The Arab Peace Initiative.)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
PALESTINIAN PEACE PROPAGANDA -- TRANSPARENT HOT AIR
Isn’t it interesting that the noise coming out of the Palestinian Camp is how face-to-face negotiations -- to which the Arabs already agreed -- will instantly be reduced to toast if Israel ends its settlement freeze next month?
What is today’s date?
Wow!
It’s August 23, 2010.
When did Israel launch its settlement freeze -- and why?
Israel froze building in the settlements last November. Why? Simply as a fig leaf to bring the Palestinians back to negotiations. No more, no less.
So Israel stops building at the behest of President Barack Obama for eight months, eagerly awaiting a reciprocal gesture (i.e. peace talks) and what happens.
As they say at the White House -- ask Bill Clinton -- same old, same old.
The Palestinians do nothing in return, except create smoke screens and blow hot air.
The callous and reprehensible behavior of the Palestinians is as clear as a Cadillac’s windshield in a showroom. It is transparently illusory.
Same old. Same old.
As always the Palestinians are neither interested in negotiating nor are they interested in peace unless, perhaps, Israel ceded Judea, Samaria, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the Negev to Mahmoud Abbas and his band of charlatans.
Palestinian actions, when it comes to peacemaking have braked for years in a state of inaction with no traction in sight.
Or, to put it another way, their motives are clear, assuming you translate from the Arabic. In those instances, they have no qualms about admitting to their true intentions.
Do nothing.
President Obama can push, cajole, promise and figuratively get on his knees, pushing Abbas & Co. to the negotiating table but he’s wasting his time.
Just look at the dates; look at the record; look at the Arabs’ history of non-negotiation.
In this case, they have blown away -- wasted -- eight months of the Bibi Netanyahu’s unprecedented concession.
Reminder: this was the first time in the Jewish nation’s history that a settlement freeze was agreed to by any Israeli government, and this is a Likud government that put it into affect.
After wasting eight months of this generous political gift (settlement freeze), the recalcitrant Arabs have again proven their political redundancy; they did nothing; zilch; zero.
In effect, the Palestinians politically urinated on a unique concession as if it were nothing.
That done, they then raised their chutzpuh level another notch and are now making demands about having the freeze extended.
Take your pick, Abbas’ strategy is either, 1. Reprehensible; 2. Disgraceful; 3. Typical or, 4. All of the above.
Has Mahmoud Abbas been reading the same playbook as Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan? Is Abbas ignorant enough of history to make the same mistake that Arafat made in 2000? Does Abbas think setting up Israel for another Mavi Marmara will help the Palestinians negotiating position?
If so he is as mistaken as Arafat and Nashrallah were about Israeli society.
We are not ready to surrender our country. If the world chooses -- as it so often has with the Jewish Nation -- to blame us for the mistakes of others, we are not going to accept the blame.
Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat talks about re-launching negotiations where they left off with Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak.
Is he trying to pull off some perverse joke?
Sadly the ever bold and racist Erekat gets away with these inciting comments because of an ignorant and biased -- against Israel -- media, which has helped create universal obtuseness about Israeli-Arab relations.
If we were to continue negotiations where they left off there would be nothing to negotiate about, other than the Palestinians accepting less than they were given before.
If the Palestinians believe that they can squeeze more out of our government then they are deceiving themselves. It is also not Israel’s fault that the GREEDY appetites of Yassar Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas led them to turn down the more then generous offers given to them by the two Ehud’s.
I hope Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu is ready for this Palestinian media trap.
Our country is strong and we will not capitulate to the criminal and propagandist actions that have been carried out against us by the Turks, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority.
On the other hand we should no longer be falling into the vile traps the Palestinians are setting for us at the expense of peace and their own statehood.
It is high time for us to grab the upper hand.
We wish all the best of luck to Prime Minister Netenyahu.
What is today’s date?
Wow!
It’s August 23, 2010.
When did Israel launch its settlement freeze -- and why?
Israel froze building in the settlements last November. Why? Simply as a fig leaf to bring the Palestinians back to negotiations. No more, no less.
So Israel stops building at the behest of President Barack Obama for eight months, eagerly awaiting a reciprocal gesture (i.e. peace talks) and what happens.
As they say at the White House -- ask Bill Clinton -- same old, same old.
The Palestinians do nothing in return, except create smoke screens and blow hot air.
The callous and reprehensible behavior of the Palestinians is as clear as a Cadillac’s windshield in a showroom. It is transparently illusory.
Same old. Same old.
As always the Palestinians are neither interested in negotiating nor are they interested in peace unless, perhaps, Israel ceded Judea, Samaria, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the Negev to Mahmoud Abbas and his band of charlatans.
Palestinian actions, when it comes to peacemaking have braked for years in a state of inaction with no traction in sight.
Or, to put it another way, their motives are clear, assuming you translate from the Arabic. In those instances, they have no qualms about admitting to their true intentions.
Do nothing.
President Obama can push, cajole, promise and figuratively get on his knees, pushing Abbas & Co. to the negotiating table but he’s wasting his time.
Just look at the dates; look at the record; look at the Arabs’ history of non-negotiation.
In this case, they have blown away -- wasted -- eight months of the Bibi Netanyahu’s unprecedented concession.
Reminder: this was the first time in the Jewish nation’s history that a settlement freeze was agreed to by any Israeli government, and this is a Likud government that put it into affect.
After wasting eight months of this generous political gift (settlement freeze), the recalcitrant Arabs have again proven their political redundancy; they did nothing; zilch; zero.
In effect, the Palestinians politically urinated on a unique concession as if it were nothing.
That done, they then raised their chutzpuh level another notch and are now making demands about having the freeze extended.
Take your pick, Abbas’ strategy is either, 1. Reprehensible; 2. Disgraceful; 3. Typical or, 4. All of the above.
Has Mahmoud Abbas been reading the same playbook as Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan? Is Abbas ignorant enough of history to make the same mistake that Arafat made in 2000? Does Abbas think setting up Israel for another Mavi Marmara will help the Palestinians negotiating position?
If so he is as mistaken as Arafat and Nashrallah were about Israeli society.
We are not ready to surrender our country. If the world chooses -- as it so often has with the Jewish Nation -- to blame us for the mistakes of others, we are not going to accept the blame.
Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat talks about re-launching negotiations where they left off with Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak.
Is he trying to pull off some perverse joke?
Sadly the ever bold and racist Erekat gets away with these inciting comments because of an ignorant and biased -- against Israel -- media, which has helped create universal obtuseness about Israeli-Arab relations.
If we were to continue negotiations where they left off there would be nothing to negotiate about, other than the Palestinians accepting less than they were given before.
If the Palestinians believe that they can squeeze more out of our government then they are deceiving themselves. It is also not Israel’s fault that the GREEDY appetites of Yassar Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas led them to turn down the more then generous offers given to them by the two Ehud’s.
I hope Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu is ready for this Palestinian media trap.
Our country is strong and we will not capitulate to the criminal and propagandist actions that have been carried out against us by the Turks, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority.
On the other hand we should no longer be falling into the vile traps the Palestinians are setting for us at the expense of peace and their own statehood.
It is high time for us to grab the upper hand.
We wish all the best of luck to Prime Minister Netenyahu.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
ABOUT THE WRONG MOSQUE IN THE WRONG PLACE AND MUTE MODERATE MUSLIMS
By Schmoel `Yitzhak
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER MOSQUE: Anyone with half a brain and an ounce of sensibility should know by now that the World Trade Center mosque issue has absolutely nothing to do with religious freedom.
Mosques are sprinkled all over New York City and Manhattan in particular.
You want to build a mosque and you have all the correct permits and title to the land, go build it.
That has been the case in New York since Abraham Lincoln was a tot -- before and beyond.
What makes the intent to build the so-called Cordoba -- bad name already since it signifies a grand Muslim victory of arms -- a Koran’s-throw away from the infamous 9/11 site so appalling is the attitude of its supporters toward their opponents.
The Muslim forces behave as if 9/11 was a mere fender-bender; that it resulted in a few injuries and the perpetrators were a rather unique minority two, scattered somewhere between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
They -- and Mayor Michael Bloomberg stands atop the culprit list -- choose to ignore the fact that once built, the mosque could very well harbor the same kind of nut cases who perpetrated the World Trade Center disaster.
The likes of Bloomberg would protest that the Cordoba mosque would be run by peace-loving Muslims but definitive proof is lacking.
And even if it turned out to be true -- which I seriously doubt -- what have the moderate Muslims done anywhere to intensively foster peace either in the Middle East or elsewhere for that matter.
I’m more inclined to the view of Dr. Emanuel Tanay, a medical doctor from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who has been acclaimed as a forensic psychiatrist and has -- or is -- serving on a number of estimable boards.
A Holocaust survivor, Dr. Tanay pinpoints the primary concern of Trade Center mosque foes, whether some of them know it or not.
That is, the so-called moderate Muslim majority -- and those pushing for the mosque -- never stands up to be counted when fanatic Arabs spew their hate and attack innocents as the World Trade Center episode so vividly has proven.
As for the assertion that most Muslims want to live in peace, Dr. Tanay dismisses it out of hand as irrelevant.
“It is meaningless fluff,” states Dr. Tanay, “meant to make us feel better. And meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
“The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide.
“It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.`’
Had Rudolph Giuliani been New York’s mayor when the Trade Center mosque originally was proposed, he would have tossed “political correctness” out the window and ensured that it never would deface the sacred turf.
A majority of New Yorkers are opposed to the Manhattan mosque plan.
Ditto for a majority of Americans from Washington State to Washington, D.C.
This majority sees through the Muslim veil of moderation.
Religious freedom is no more the issue than selling felafel in front of City Hall.
New York State’s Governor Patterson graciously offered the mosque manipulators a compromise.
Build it, if you will, but not in the shadow of America’s most ignominious Muslim-inflicted disaster.
In so many words, Patterson was told to go fly a kite.
Were there such a bloc as peace-loving Muslims within the mosque-planners, it would have been heard and sensitively agreed to move the house of worship to a more agreeable site.
Instead they have militantly responded by insisting on sticking their mosque in America’s craw; no more, no less.
Dr. Tanay’s X-Ray is difficult to dispute:
“Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
“Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up because they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.”
It’s something for Mayor Bloomberg to consider unless he’s permanently blinded by those two deceptive words -- politically correct!
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER MOSQUE: Anyone with half a brain and an ounce of sensibility should know by now that the World Trade Center mosque issue has absolutely nothing to do with religious freedom.
Mosques are sprinkled all over New York City and Manhattan in particular.
You want to build a mosque and you have all the correct permits and title to the land, go build it.
That has been the case in New York since Abraham Lincoln was a tot -- before and beyond.
What makes the intent to build the so-called Cordoba -- bad name already since it signifies a grand Muslim victory of arms -- a Koran’s-throw away from the infamous 9/11 site so appalling is the attitude of its supporters toward their opponents.
The Muslim forces behave as if 9/11 was a mere fender-bender; that it resulted in a few injuries and the perpetrators were a rather unique minority two, scattered somewhere between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
They -- and Mayor Michael Bloomberg stands atop the culprit list -- choose to ignore the fact that once built, the mosque could very well harbor the same kind of nut cases who perpetrated the World Trade Center disaster.
The likes of Bloomberg would protest that the Cordoba mosque would be run by peace-loving Muslims but definitive proof is lacking.
And even if it turned out to be true -- which I seriously doubt -- what have the moderate Muslims done anywhere to intensively foster peace either in the Middle East or elsewhere for that matter.
I’m more inclined to the view of Dr. Emanuel Tanay, a medical doctor from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who has been acclaimed as a forensic psychiatrist and has -- or is -- serving on a number of estimable boards.
A Holocaust survivor, Dr. Tanay pinpoints the primary concern of Trade Center mosque foes, whether some of them know it or not.
That is, the so-called moderate Muslim majority -- and those pushing for the mosque -- never stands up to be counted when fanatic Arabs spew their hate and attack innocents as the World Trade Center episode so vividly has proven.
As for the assertion that most Muslims want to live in peace, Dr. Tanay dismisses it out of hand as irrelevant.
“It is meaningless fluff,” states Dr. Tanay, “meant to make us feel better. And meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
“The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide.
“It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.`’
Had Rudolph Giuliani been New York’s mayor when the Trade Center mosque originally was proposed, he would have tossed “political correctness” out the window and ensured that it never would deface the sacred turf.
A majority of New Yorkers are opposed to the Manhattan mosque plan.
Ditto for a majority of Americans from Washington State to Washington, D.C.
This majority sees through the Muslim veil of moderation.
Religious freedom is no more the issue than selling felafel in front of City Hall.
New York State’s Governor Patterson graciously offered the mosque manipulators a compromise.
Build it, if you will, but not in the shadow of America’s most ignominious Muslim-inflicted disaster.
In so many words, Patterson was told to go fly a kite.
Were there such a bloc as peace-loving Muslims within the mosque-planners, it would have been heard and sensitively agreed to move the house of worship to a more agreeable site.
Instead they have militantly responded by insisting on sticking their mosque in America’s craw; no more, no less.
Dr. Tanay’s X-Ray is difficult to dispute:
“Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
“Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up because they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.”
It’s something for Mayor Bloomberg to consider unless he’s permanently blinded by those two deceptive words -- politically correct!
Monday, August 16, 2010
BOYCOTT THE BOYCOTTERS
It’s time to boycott the boycotters!
The time has come for the supporters of Israel, the Jewish Nation and those who love freedom to come out and fight ruthlessly against the boycott of Israel.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they call Israel -- a liberal democracy that gives all of her citizens, Arab Israelis included, the freedom of speech, freedom to vote and freedom to live – an apartheid, racist state, while turning a blind eye to Palestinian racism towards Jews and Israel.
After all, it was Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator of the “MODERATE” Palestinian Authority, who said clearly that not one Jew would be allowed to live in the State of Palestine!
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they want to point the finger at Israel, while ignoring that a Jew cannot buy land in Jordan, simply because he is a Jew! Is that not racial discrimination?
Boycott the boycotters of Israel. They castigate her for enforcing her blockade of the Gaza Strip and in doing so killing nine Turkish militants. Yet not a word has been said about Turkey invading northern Iraq to kill Kurds (whom they call terrorists). Not a word about Turkey using CHEMICAL WEAPONS on the Kurds. A report this week in Der Spiegal confirms what many already knew: German doctors attest that the Kurds could have been killed only by chemical weapons. There is NO boycott of Turkey.
Yet the boycotters want to boycott Israel (INSTEAD of a list which should include Zimbabwe, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Somalia, China, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, to name but a few)? Really.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel, … because they ignore that Israel has tried more than once and certainly more than the Palestinians to create a State of Palestine! After all who rejected Peace at Camp David? The Palestinian leadership did. The “occupation” exists today ONLY because it was more important for Arafat and his cronies to destroy Israel than create a State of Palestine
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they say Israel has committed Genocide. Yet they ignore the intentional use of suicide bombers against Israeli civilians, which is, without a doubt, a crime against humanity. The intentional attempt to kill civilians is illegal according to the Geneva Convention.
Yet Hamas specializes in the intentional attempt to kill Israeli civilians. Hamas started its suicide bombing spree right after the signing of the Oslo Peace accords in a direct attempt to sabotage peace. Arafat secretly added them any time Israel did not give him exactly what he wanted.
The boycotters of Israel aren’t going to boycott the Palestinians or Hamas. Nor will they boycott the Palestinians for intentionally shooting more than eight thousand rockets into Southern Israel after Israel withdrew civilians and the IDF from the Gaza strip.
Intentionally shooting rockets into civilian centers as Hamas does from Gaza is a human rights violation and a crime against humanity. IT IS ILLEGAL IN THE GENEVA CONVENTION! But the boycotting world doesn’t seem to care!
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they still harp on Israel’s alleged role during the violence perpetrated in Lebanon on the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in 1982, despite the fact that Israeli soldiers didn’t kill a single Palestinian refugee in those camps!
The killers, the murderers were ARAB MARONITE CHRISTIAN PHALANGISTS! Could the IDF have stopped them? Probably; but at the cost of an important ally. The point is simple though: it was Arab killing Arab. Yet these boycotters have no intention of boycotting Lebanon, or its Christian President.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they claim Israel is racist since her character is Jewish. Israel is racist only because she is the Jewish State?
Yet Egypt, which in its constitution clearly states it is an ARAB, MUSLIM republic is not racist and doesn’t warrant boycotting? Jordan and Syria have the same clauses is in their governmental manifestos. Lebanon goes even further: the constitution of Lebanon clearly states "Lebanon is Arab in its identity and in its associations." Iran is the ISLAMIC republic; no one is boycotting Iran because of that. Most EU countries are by definition Christian, hence the need for Chief Rabbis of the country, something not needed in America. Yet Israel should be boycotted?
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because, while condemning Israel for human rights violations that she does NOT commit, they simultaneously disregard when these same crimes are carried out by the Palestinians, Arabs and/or other Muslim countries.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because instead of condemning Israel they should be condemning Syria for the atrocities executed in the town of Hama. Could they be ignorant of this flagrant crime against humanity, in which estimates place the number of dead from 25,000 to 40,000? Yet there is no boycott of Syria. Why is that?
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they claim they want to fix past wrongs, but only if those past wrongs are Israeli.
Yes, in the Israeli war of Independence Israeli soldiers did carry out executions; and, yes, some Palestinian towns were forcefully removed. It was war --a war started by the Palestinians and the Arab nations surrounding Israel.
The stated goal of the Palestinian Arabs and surrounding Arab nations was to systematically destroy Israel and her Jewish population. The Arabs carried out far more executions and genocide than their Jewish counterparts. In fact, Jewish soldiers would commit suicide rather than be captured by Arab or Palestinian Arabs because of the atrocities they committed.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they talk of seven hundred thousand Palestinian refugees created out of Israeli Independence. Yet they fail to acknowledge that MOST of those refugees were created because they were following the orders of the Arab leadership to leave their homes so it would be easier for the Arab armies to dispatch Israel.
They never talk of the NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND JEWISH REFUGEES thrown out of Arab and Muslim countries. Do they boycott the Arab and Muslim countries that stole everything from their former Jewish citizens? NO!
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because their intent is to destroy Israel and deprive the Jewish Nation of its right to self-determination, while encouraging the creation of yet another Arab Muslim state. If this isn’t racism and anti-semitism, what is?
Friends and supporters of Israel: I will be starting a new page on Facebook in direct opposition to the Israel Boycott. The time has come for us to UNITE and fight these racists who wish to delegitimize, villainize and destroy Israel. We must not let them continue unopposed. Hopefully, if we come together -- and stick together -- we will gain momentum to expose the boycotters for what they really are: anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist hate-mongers.
Thank you for your support.
Simon Fischler
The time has come for the supporters of Israel, the Jewish Nation and those who love freedom to come out and fight ruthlessly against the boycott of Israel.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they call Israel -- a liberal democracy that gives all of her citizens, Arab Israelis included, the freedom of speech, freedom to vote and freedom to live – an apartheid, racist state, while turning a blind eye to Palestinian racism towards Jews and Israel.
After all, it was Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator of the “MODERATE” Palestinian Authority, who said clearly that not one Jew would be allowed to live in the State of Palestine!
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they want to point the finger at Israel, while ignoring that a Jew cannot buy land in Jordan, simply because he is a Jew! Is that not racial discrimination?
Boycott the boycotters of Israel. They castigate her for enforcing her blockade of the Gaza Strip and in doing so killing nine Turkish militants. Yet not a word has been said about Turkey invading northern Iraq to kill Kurds (whom they call terrorists). Not a word about Turkey using CHEMICAL WEAPONS on the Kurds. A report this week in Der Spiegal confirms what many already knew: German doctors attest that the Kurds could have been killed only by chemical weapons. There is NO boycott of Turkey.
Yet the boycotters want to boycott Israel (INSTEAD of a list which should include Zimbabwe, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Somalia, China, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, to name but a few)? Really.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel, … because they ignore that Israel has tried more than once and certainly more than the Palestinians to create a State of Palestine! After all who rejected Peace at Camp David? The Palestinian leadership did. The “occupation” exists today ONLY because it was more important for Arafat and his cronies to destroy Israel than create a State of Palestine
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they say Israel has committed Genocide. Yet they ignore the intentional use of suicide bombers against Israeli civilians, which is, without a doubt, a crime against humanity. The intentional attempt to kill civilians is illegal according to the Geneva Convention.
Yet Hamas specializes in the intentional attempt to kill Israeli civilians. Hamas started its suicide bombing spree right after the signing of the Oslo Peace accords in a direct attempt to sabotage peace. Arafat secretly added them any time Israel did not give him exactly what he wanted.
The boycotters of Israel aren’t going to boycott the Palestinians or Hamas. Nor will they boycott the Palestinians for intentionally shooting more than eight thousand rockets into Southern Israel after Israel withdrew civilians and the IDF from the Gaza strip.
Intentionally shooting rockets into civilian centers as Hamas does from Gaza is a human rights violation and a crime against humanity. IT IS ILLEGAL IN THE GENEVA CONVENTION! But the boycotting world doesn’t seem to care!
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they still harp on Israel’s alleged role during the violence perpetrated in Lebanon on the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in 1982, despite the fact that Israeli soldiers didn’t kill a single Palestinian refugee in those camps!
The killers, the murderers were ARAB MARONITE CHRISTIAN PHALANGISTS! Could the IDF have stopped them? Probably; but at the cost of an important ally. The point is simple though: it was Arab killing Arab. Yet these boycotters have no intention of boycotting Lebanon, or its Christian President.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they claim Israel is racist since her character is Jewish. Israel is racist only because she is the Jewish State?
Yet Egypt, which in its constitution clearly states it is an ARAB, MUSLIM republic is not racist and doesn’t warrant boycotting? Jordan and Syria have the same clauses is in their governmental manifestos. Lebanon goes even further: the constitution of Lebanon clearly states "Lebanon is Arab in its identity and in its associations." Iran is the ISLAMIC republic; no one is boycotting Iran because of that. Most EU countries are by definition Christian, hence the need for Chief Rabbis of the country, something not needed in America. Yet Israel should be boycotted?
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because, while condemning Israel for human rights violations that she does NOT commit, they simultaneously disregard when these same crimes are carried out by the Palestinians, Arabs and/or other Muslim countries.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because instead of condemning Israel they should be condemning Syria for the atrocities executed in the town of Hama. Could they be ignorant of this flagrant crime against humanity, in which estimates place the number of dead from 25,000 to 40,000? Yet there is no boycott of Syria. Why is that?
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they claim they want to fix past wrongs, but only if those past wrongs are Israeli.
Yes, in the Israeli war of Independence Israeli soldiers did carry out executions; and, yes, some Palestinian towns were forcefully removed. It was war --a war started by the Palestinians and the Arab nations surrounding Israel.
The stated goal of the Palestinian Arabs and surrounding Arab nations was to systematically destroy Israel and her Jewish population. The Arabs carried out far more executions and genocide than their Jewish counterparts. In fact, Jewish soldiers would commit suicide rather than be captured by Arab or Palestinian Arabs because of the atrocities they committed.
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because they talk of seven hundred thousand Palestinian refugees created out of Israeli Independence. Yet they fail to acknowledge that MOST of those refugees were created because they were following the orders of the Arab leadership to leave their homes so it would be easier for the Arab armies to dispatch Israel.
They never talk of the NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND JEWISH REFUGEES thrown out of Arab and Muslim countries. Do they boycott the Arab and Muslim countries that stole everything from their former Jewish citizens? NO!
Boycott the boycotters of Israel … because their intent is to destroy Israel and deprive the Jewish Nation of its right to self-determination, while encouraging the creation of yet another Arab Muslim state. If this isn’t racism and anti-semitism, what is?
Friends and supporters of Israel: I will be starting a new page on Facebook in direct opposition to the Israel Boycott. The time has come for us to UNITE and fight these racists who wish to delegitimize, villainize and destroy Israel. We must not let them continue unopposed. Hopefully, if we come together -- and stick together -- we will gain momentum to expose the boycotters for what they really are: anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist hate-mongers.
Thank you for your support.
Simon Fischler
Sunday, August 15, 2010
HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE
By Schmoel Yitzhak
* OF WHAT IS OBAMA AFRAID?
After his lamented Cairo speech -- not so artfully designed to make-nice with a bazzilion Muslims -- Barack (What Am I Anyway?) Obama has become a "Second-Thinker."
That is, he says (or does) one thing and, after realizing that he committed yet another political boo-boo, he reconsiders and switches to another aimless track.
We saw that when it came to his off-again-on-again figurative face-slapping of Benjamin Netanyahu followed by a surprise White House courtship so dripping with sweetness that it seemed to have been choreographed by the Saccharine Chamber of Commerce.
For further proof that Uncle Sam's Chief Executive verbalizes out of both sides of his mouth, we have this weekend's version of Barack's Now-You-See-Him-Now-You-Don't Trick.
On Friday, the prez gave a ringing endorsement for the ill-conceived plan to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero.
One wonder why it took The Thin Man so long to address an issue that has millions of non-New Yorkers furiously wringing their hands -- while their heads throb in anger -- over an affront to their patriotic senses.
Obama's oh-it's-okay-this-is-a-democracy mosque endorsement had a shelf life of less than twenty-four hours.
You have to figure that at least two of his non-Muslim advisors handed him a calendar, pointed to November and reminded The Empty Suit that elections are held in America's autumn.
What's more, a lot of Democrats are doing the Wobbly over a possibility that they will get rejected by their disgusted electorate.
"Think about THAT, Mister President," I could just hear those advisors advising.
So, Obama came to Panama City, Florida, he thought and, wonder of wonders, The New York (Everything Obama Does Is Right) Times then ran this telltale headline:
OBAMA SAYS MOSQUE REMARKS WERE NOT ENDORSEMENT.
Well, you know what they say: Turnabout is fair play.
Except, in this case it isn't; not by a long shot.
A president cannot say one thing on Friday and then say another on Saturday and expect to get away with it.
If he believes that it is an insensitive, improper, ill-advised idea to build the mosque just yards from where thousands were killed because of an anti-American plot engineered by Muslim extremists, then he should come out and say so in plain English.
Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, is not afraid to articulate what millions of Americans believe.
"The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done," says King, "was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from ground zero."
Obama's failure to do so will cost his Democratic pals dearly in November.
Believe me, he knows that very well but lacks the courage to do -- and say -- the right thing.
* * *
AMNESIA, AMERICAN-EUROPEAN UNION-STYLE:
From Arab-land, word is out that "direct" talks about a two-state "solution" to the Arab-Israeli conflict will soon begin.
As the old, classic tune goes, "It Seems To Me I Heard That Song Before."
But, wait, maybe Abbas and Netanyahu will chat in Cairo as advertised. Then, what?
Answer: Nothing!
Begin with the fact that Hamas has vociferously condemned the idea of such chatting and since Hamas controls Gaza, what good is such a pact?
It certainly would NOT produce a two-state solution since Hamas controls half that state and there's no realistic way that the terrorist domain will change its destroy-Israel stance.
Now even if we take the most optimistic view that a two-state solution -- minus Hamas -- is forged and then rockets begin flowing into Israel as in the past, do you think Abbas & Co. will side with Israel?
Only when a hippopotamus learns to fly.
Abbas would quickly ally himself with Hamas and execute a pincer movement to achieve the Arabs' long-hoped for extinction of Israel.
No less troubling is the European Union's backing for the direct talks. Who needs the EU? Certainly not Netanyahu.
Over and over again, the EU's policies have been anti-Israel and there's no way the Middle East's only democratic state will get a break this time around.
Then, you have the underlining element that should negate these proposed talks; Abbas has bucked them for months, if not years.
What's the point of having discussions if the Palestinians really do not want to have any part of them.
Netanyahu has gone public, endorsing a two-state solution just as Ehud Barak did at Camp David.
And you know what Barak got for his kindness? The Jerusalem Post's Sarah Honig sure does.
"Bill Clinton dragged a kicking and screaming Arafat to Camp David," writes Honig. "Barak made egregious offers to reward Arafat for his 'cooperation.'"
Still, the Palestinian nixed every Israeli offer and what Barak got for his concessions was the Second Intifada.
Who are the Americans and the European Union kidding? Do they think we really are suffering from amnesia?
For the sake of Netanyahu and Israel, I certainly hope not!
* OF WHAT IS OBAMA AFRAID?
After his lamented Cairo speech -- not so artfully designed to make-nice with a bazzilion Muslims -- Barack (What Am I Anyway?) Obama has become a "Second-Thinker."
That is, he says (or does) one thing and, after realizing that he committed yet another political boo-boo, he reconsiders and switches to another aimless track.
We saw that when it came to his off-again-on-again figurative face-slapping of Benjamin Netanyahu followed by a surprise White House courtship so dripping with sweetness that it seemed to have been choreographed by the Saccharine Chamber of Commerce.
For further proof that Uncle Sam's Chief Executive verbalizes out of both sides of his mouth, we have this weekend's version of Barack's Now-You-See-Him-Now-You-Don't Trick.
On Friday, the prez gave a ringing endorsement for the ill-conceived plan to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero.
One wonder why it took The Thin Man so long to address an issue that has millions of non-New Yorkers furiously wringing their hands -- while their heads throb in anger -- over an affront to their patriotic senses.
Obama's oh-it's-okay-this-is-a-democracy mosque endorsement had a shelf life of less than twenty-four hours.
You have to figure that at least two of his non-Muslim advisors handed him a calendar, pointed to November and reminded The Empty Suit that elections are held in America's autumn.
What's more, a lot of Democrats are doing the Wobbly over a possibility that they will get rejected by their disgusted electorate.
"Think about THAT, Mister President," I could just hear those advisors advising.
So, Obama came to Panama City, Florida, he thought and, wonder of wonders, The New York (Everything Obama Does Is Right) Times then ran this telltale headline:
OBAMA SAYS MOSQUE REMARKS WERE NOT ENDORSEMENT.
Well, you know what they say: Turnabout is fair play.
Except, in this case it isn't; not by a long shot.
A president cannot say one thing on Friday and then say another on Saturday and expect to get away with it.
If he believes that it is an insensitive, improper, ill-advised idea to build the mosque just yards from where thousands were killed because of an anti-American plot engineered by Muslim extremists, then he should come out and say so in plain English.
Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, is not afraid to articulate what millions of Americans believe.
"The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done," says King, "was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from ground zero."
Obama's failure to do so will cost his Democratic pals dearly in November.
Believe me, he knows that very well but lacks the courage to do -- and say -- the right thing.
* * *
AMNESIA, AMERICAN-EUROPEAN UNION-STYLE:
From Arab-land, word is out that "direct" talks about a two-state "solution" to the Arab-Israeli conflict will soon begin.
As the old, classic tune goes, "It Seems To Me I Heard That Song Before."
But, wait, maybe Abbas and Netanyahu will chat in Cairo as advertised. Then, what?
Answer: Nothing!
Begin with the fact that Hamas has vociferously condemned the idea of such chatting and since Hamas controls Gaza, what good is such a pact?
It certainly would NOT produce a two-state solution since Hamas controls half that state and there's no realistic way that the terrorist domain will change its destroy-Israel stance.
Now even if we take the most optimistic view that a two-state solution -- minus Hamas -- is forged and then rockets begin flowing into Israel as in the past, do you think Abbas & Co. will side with Israel?
Only when a hippopotamus learns to fly.
Abbas would quickly ally himself with Hamas and execute a pincer movement to achieve the Arabs' long-hoped for extinction of Israel.
No less troubling is the European Union's backing for the direct talks. Who needs the EU? Certainly not Netanyahu.
Over and over again, the EU's policies have been anti-Israel and there's no way the Middle East's only democratic state will get a break this time around.
Then, you have the underlining element that should negate these proposed talks; Abbas has bucked them for months, if not years.
What's the point of having discussions if the Palestinians really do not want to have any part of them.
Netanyahu has gone public, endorsing a two-state solution just as Ehud Barak did at Camp David.
And you know what Barak got for his kindness? The Jerusalem Post's Sarah Honig sure does.
"Bill Clinton dragged a kicking and screaming Arafat to Camp David," writes Honig. "Barak made egregious offers to reward Arafat for his 'cooperation.'"
Still, the Palestinian nixed every Israeli offer and what Barak got for his concessions was the Second Intifada.
Who are the Americans and the European Union kidding? Do they think we really are suffering from amnesia?
For the sake of Netanyahu and Israel, I certainly hope not!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
THE “TRUTH” OF PAPPE
THE “TRUTH” OF PAPPE
Professor Ilan Pappe a professor of history at the University of Exeter is sick; sick with a racist hatred towards the Jews and the Jewish Nation that will not be stopped until the destruction of Israel is achieved.
Professor Pappe has no problem conjuring up the most heinous and racist descriptions of Israel and Israeli culture, while totally overlooking the racist, anti-Semitic policies of the Arabs.
In Pappe’s history you will never hear about the Palestinian Arab relationship with the Nazis. Professor Pappe seems ignorant of Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini’s partnership with Adolf Hitler. The Mufti, an icon of Palestinian history, drew up his own FINAL SOLUTION for the Jews of Israel – about as racist as one can get.
Pappe loves to speak about Israeli crimes and genocide during her War of Independence. On the other hand Mr. Pappe totally overlooks the hard facts that the Arabs carried out far more executions of Jews during the war, than the Jews did Arabs.
Yes, the IDF did carry out executions; there were even times when the IDF was told to clear out and burn Palestinian Villages -- something the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab Regular Armies did on a constant basis.
There is a difference here between the two sides, though. The IDF only cleared out villages that were being used as bases by the Palestinian Arab militias and the Arab Regular Armies. Does this excuse the IDF? No, but it is a part of war. The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab Regular armies, on the other hand, systematically attempted to destroy every Jewish village they came upon. For the Israelis it was life or death: they were fighting invading soldiers who wanted them dead. None of this historical fact is mentioned in Professor Pappe’s twisted version of history.
Pappe also loves to talk about the Palestinian Refugees of the 1948, yet he never acknowledges the undeniable fact that the Arabs were mostly to blame for the creation of the “Palestinian” refugees. Nor will he ver mention the fact the two hundred thousand more Jewish refugees were tossed out of Arab and Muslim countries.
How are the Arabs responsible for the refugees?
First they rejected the UN partition outright. Next, believing in their military superiority, the Arab governments insisted the Arabs of Israel leave their homes until their armies were finished annihilating the Jews. All of this Pappe leaves out of his narrative, as if the Arabs were totally innocent and defenseless.
Here are some substantiating quotes for you.
ON SEPTEMBER 6, 1948, the Beirut Daily Telegraph quoted Emil Ghory, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), as saying: "The fact that there are those refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously..."
ON APRIL 23, 1948 Jamal Husseini, acting chairman of the Palestine AHC told the UN Security Council, "The Arabs did not want to submit to a truce ... They preferred to abandon their homes, belongings and everything they possessed."
IN THE MARCH 1976 issue of Falastin a-Thaura, then the official journal of the Beirut-based PLO, Mahmud Abbas ("Abu Mazen", now Prime Minister of the West Bank PA), then a PLO spokesman, wrote: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live."
ON APRIL 9, 1953, the Jordanian daily al-Urdun quoted a refugee, Yunes Ahmed Assad, formerly of Deir Yassin, as saying: "For the flight and fall of the other villages, it is our leaders who are responsible, because of the dissemination of rumours exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs ... they instilled fear and terror into the hearts of the Arabs of Palestine until they fled, leaving their homes and property to the enemy."
Professor Pappe also loves to call Israel’s security barrier the “Apartheid Wall,” citing it as yet another example of the racist policies of Israel. With amazing selective amnesia, Pappe omits mention of the fact that the security barrier was not started until after the Palestinians rejected peace and a Palestinian state in 2000, opting instead for killing Israeli Jews in suicide attacks. Since the erection of the wall, there has not been a major suicide bombing in Israel. ‘Nuff said, I think!
Among many other sins of omission, Professor Pappe also fails to mention that the Kingdom of Jordan and the Government of Egypt occupied the West Bank (Jordan) and the Gaza Strip (Egypt) from 1948 until the Six-Day War of 1967. Somehow it was nifty for Arabs to occupy Gaza and the West Bank – with absolutely no discussion of creating a state for the Palestinian refugees, nor doing a single thing to help the plight of those refugees.
But it’s obviously not okay for Israel to “occupy” even small portions of these Palestinian enclaves, despite the fact that Israel “won” these areas in 1967, as well as annexing Sinai and the Golan Heights along the way. How many nations do you recall that have ceded, or returned huge portions of the lands they conquered, WITH ABSOLUTELY NO RESTITUTION IN RETURN?
Professor Pappe also seems totally all right with the blatantly racist policies of even the most moderate Palestinian politicians. It was Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, who said that there was no way Jews would be allowed to live in the Palestinian State. Is that not a policy of Segregation and Apartheid? Of course it is, and has been Arab policy since 1948.
For more of Mr. Erekat’s racist speech, take a look:
http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1666
Pappe also forgets that it was the Arabs whom the British consulted and considered in drafting their infamous White Paper of 1939. This racist dictum allowed an unlimited number of Arabs to immigrate to Mandate Palestine (which they took huge advantage of), but drastically lowered the number of Jews who could immigrate. Leaving many to die in the concentration camps of Europe. On top of that the white paper stated that after 1944 NO Jews would be allowed to immigrate to the Mandate of Palestine! Is that not a policy of racism and incipient apartheid created by the British in collusion with the Arabs? Of course it is.
Why is Professor Ilan Pappe still given a classroom to teach in? Why is he being handed a podium from which to spout his lies and distortions?
More must be done to expose his treacherous writings and falsified versions of Israel’s history. Professor Ilan Pappe is Israel’s twenty-first century Tomas de Torquemada and the time has come to confront this perverse excuse for a professor.
Professor Ilan Pappe a professor of history at the University of Exeter is sick; sick with a racist hatred towards the Jews and the Jewish Nation that will not be stopped until the destruction of Israel is achieved.
Professor Pappe has no problem conjuring up the most heinous and racist descriptions of Israel and Israeli culture, while totally overlooking the racist, anti-Semitic policies of the Arabs.
In Pappe’s history you will never hear about the Palestinian Arab relationship with the Nazis. Professor Pappe seems ignorant of Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini’s partnership with Adolf Hitler. The Mufti, an icon of Palestinian history, drew up his own FINAL SOLUTION for the Jews of Israel – about as racist as one can get.
Pappe loves to speak about Israeli crimes and genocide during her War of Independence. On the other hand Mr. Pappe totally overlooks the hard facts that the Arabs carried out far more executions of Jews during the war, than the Jews did Arabs.
Yes, the IDF did carry out executions; there were even times when the IDF was told to clear out and burn Palestinian Villages -- something the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab Regular Armies did on a constant basis.
There is a difference here between the two sides, though. The IDF only cleared out villages that were being used as bases by the Palestinian Arab militias and the Arab Regular Armies. Does this excuse the IDF? No, but it is a part of war. The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab Regular armies, on the other hand, systematically attempted to destroy every Jewish village they came upon. For the Israelis it was life or death: they were fighting invading soldiers who wanted them dead. None of this historical fact is mentioned in Professor Pappe’s twisted version of history.
Pappe also loves to talk about the Palestinian Refugees of the 1948, yet he never acknowledges the undeniable fact that the Arabs were mostly to blame for the creation of the “Palestinian” refugees. Nor will he ver mention the fact the two hundred thousand more Jewish refugees were tossed out of Arab and Muslim countries.
How are the Arabs responsible for the refugees?
First they rejected the UN partition outright. Next, believing in their military superiority, the Arab governments insisted the Arabs of Israel leave their homes until their armies were finished annihilating the Jews. All of this Pappe leaves out of his narrative, as if the Arabs were totally innocent and defenseless.
Here are some substantiating quotes for you.
ON SEPTEMBER 6, 1948, the Beirut Daily Telegraph quoted Emil Ghory, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), as saying: "The fact that there are those refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously..."
ON APRIL 23, 1948 Jamal Husseini, acting chairman of the Palestine AHC told the UN Security Council, "The Arabs did not want to submit to a truce ... They preferred to abandon their homes, belongings and everything they possessed."
IN THE MARCH 1976 issue of Falastin a-Thaura, then the official journal of the Beirut-based PLO, Mahmud Abbas ("Abu Mazen", now Prime Minister of the West Bank PA), then a PLO spokesman, wrote: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live."
ON APRIL 9, 1953, the Jordanian daily al-Urdun quoted a refugee, Yunes Ahmed Assad, formerly of Deir Yassin, as saying: "For the flight and fall of the other villages, it is our leaders who are responsible, because of the dissemination of rumours exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs ... they instilled fear and terror into the hearts of the Arabs of Palestine until they fled, leaving their homes and property to the enemy."
Professor Pappe also loves to call Israel’s security barrier the “Apartheid Wall,” citing it as yet another example of the racist policies of Israel. With amazing selective amnesia, Pappe omits mention of the fact that the security barrier was not started until after the Palestinians rejected peace and a Palestinian state in 2000, opting instead for killing Israeli Jews in suicide attacks. Since the erection of the wall, there has not been a major suicide bombing in Israel. ‘Nuff said, I think!
Among many other sins of omission, Professor Pappe also fails to mention that the Kingdom of Jordan and the Government of Egypt occupied the West Bank (Jordan) and the Gaza Strip (Egypt) from 1948 until the Six-Day War of 1967. Somehow it was nifty for Arabs to occupy Gaza and the West Bank – with absolutely no discussion of creating a state for the Palestinian refugees, nor doing a single thing to help the plight of those refugees.
But it’s obviously not okay for Israel to “occupy” even small portions of these Palestinian enclaves, despite the fact that Israel “won” these areas in 1967, as well as annexing Sinai and the Golan Heights along the way. How many nations do you recall that have ceded, or returned huge portions of the lands they conquered, WITH ABSOLUTELY NO RESTITUTION IN RETURN?
Professor Pappe also seems totally all right with the blatantly racist policies of even the most moderate Palestinian politicians. It was Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, who said that there was no way Jews would be allowed to live in the Palestinian State. Is that not a policy of Segregation and Apartheid? Of course it is, and has been Arab policy since 1948.
For more of Mr. Erekat’s racist speech, take a look:
http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1666
Pappe also forgets that it was the Arabs whom the British consulted and considered in drafting their infamous White Paper of 1939. This racist dictum allowed an unlimited number of Arabs to immigrate to Mandate Palestine (which they took huge advantage of), but drastically lowered the number of Jews who could immigrate. Leaving many to die in the concentration camps of Europe. On top of that the white paper stated that after 1944 NO Jews would be allowed to immigrate to the Mandate of Palestine! Is that not a policy of racism and incipient apartheid created by the British in collusion with the Arabs? Of course it is.
Why is Professor Ilan Pappe still given a classroom to teach in? Why is he being handed a podium from which to spout his lies and distortions?
More must be done to expose his treacherous writings and falsified versions of Israel’s history. Professor Ilan Pappe is Israel’s twenty-first century Tomas de Torquemada and the time has come to confront this perverse excuse for a professor.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
THE ARABS CONVOLUTED IDEA OF "EQUALITY"
By Schmoel Yitzhak
Easily the most misleading thought rampant in the Middle East is that some sort of Arab-Israeli peace talks can be opened.
President Barack Obama treats his Mideast mediator George Mitchell like a yo-yo, dispatching him up and down, up and down, in the hopes that Georgie Boy can find some starting point for talks.
"Mitchell's Follies" doesn't even have an opening act because the Palestinians refuse to lift the curtain which, of course, is not exactly breaking news.
For talks to begin, an aura of compromise -- you give something, we give something -- must be felt among the participants.
But the Arabs idea of mediation is so absurdly one-sided it's astonishing that Curious George keeps playing the yo-yo game.
Here's what I mean:
A peace pact would no doubt entail that Israel cede portions of the West Bank (Judea, Samaria) to a Palestinian State where currently thousands of Israeli Jews are enjoying their lives.
Assuming that such land would be part of a deal-trade-off, it goes without saying that a certain percentage of the so-called Jewish settlers would not want to leave their homes, in the manner that many Arabs chose to stay in place when Israel became a state.
Those Arabs became Israeli citizens and have enjoyed representation in the Knesset. Their right to live in Israel is not questioned.
But what would happen if -- after a peace treaty was hammered out -- a similar percentage of Jews chose to live in the newly-minted Palestinian state?
You would think -- simply based on the fact that Arabs are allowed to live in the Jewish State that the vice would be versa.
Ha!
The Arabs convoluted idea of equality does not follow a logical path and nobody has articulated that point more emphatically than the Palestinian Authority's negotiations department head, Saeb Erekat.
Interviewed by the Jordanian daily, Al-Dustour, the PA's senior official put the kibosh on any suggestions that Jews would be allowed to remain in a Palestinian state.
"Nobody," said Erekat, "should agree to Israeli settlers remaining in the Palestinian State."
Fortunately, there are some American Jews wise to the wiles of Erekat and will expose what he and his petulant PA is all about. One who does it better than most is Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
"Saeb Erekat has provided further proof -- though none is needed -- to show that the PA demand that Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem become judenrein is official Palestinian policy.
"Conversely, he has shown that the PA's Salaam Fayyad's recent words in English to an American audience which implied that Jews would be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state was fraudulent."
Bottom Line: The Arabs idea of equality of citizenship goes like this: Palestinians can live in Israel and enjoy citizenship but Jews cannot live in a similar Arabs state.
Or, to put it another way; Israel makes concessions and in return it receives from the likes of Erekat nothing more than hot air!
Or, if you want perceptive analyst Barry Rubin's take, try this: "Obama demanded, Netanyahu agreed and Abbas still rejected direct talks."
And you wonder why Georgie Mitchell gets migraines from his yo-yo act.
Easily the most misleading thought rampant in the Middle East is that some sort of Arab-Israeli peace talks can be opened.
President Barack Obama treats his Mideast mediator George Mitchell like a yo-yo, dispatching him up and down, up and down, in the hopes that Georgie Boy can find some starting point for talks.
"Mitchell's Follies" doesn't even have an opening act because the Palestinians refuse to lift the curtain which, of course, is not exactly breaking news.
For talks to begin, an aura of compromise -- you give something, we give something -- must be felt among the participants.
But the Arabs idea of mediation is so absurdly one-sided it's astonishing that Curious George keeps playing the yo-yo game.
Here's what I mean:
A peace pact would no doubt entail that Israel cede portions of the West Bank (Judea, Samaria) to a Palestinian State where currently thousands of Israeli Jews are enjoying their lives.
Assuming that such land would be part of a deal-trade-off, it goes without saying that a certain percentage of the so-called Jewish settlers would not want to leave their homes, in the manner that many Arabs chose to stay in place when Israel became a state.
Those Arabs became Israeli citizens and have enjoyed representation in the Knesset. Their right to live in Israel is not questioned.
But what would happen if -- after a peace treaty was hammered out -- a similar percentage of Jews chose to live in the newly-minted Palestinian state?
You would think -- simply based on the fact that Arabs are allowed to live in the Jewish State that the vice would be versa.
Ha!
The Arabs convoluted idea of equality does not follow a logical path and nobody has articulated that point more emphatically than the Palestinian Authority's negotiations department head, Saeb Erekat.
Interviewed by the Jordanian daily, Al-Dustour, the PA's senior official put the kibosh on any suggestions that Jews would be allowed to remain in a Palestinian state.
"Nobody," said Erekat, "should agree to Israeli settlers remaining in the Palestinian State."
Fortunately, there are some American Jews wise to the wiles of Erekat and will expose what he and his petulant PA is all about. One who does it better than most is Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
"Saeb Erekat has provided further proof -- though none is needed -- to show that the PA demand that Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem become judenrein is official Palestinian policy.
"Conversely, he has shown that the PA's Salaam Fayyad's recent words in English to an American audience which implied that Jews would be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state was fraudulent."
Bottom Line: The Arabs idea of equality of citizenship goes like this: Palestinians can live in Israel and enjoy citizenship but Jews cannot live in a similar Arabs state.
Or, to put it another way; Israel makes concessions and in return it receives from the likes of Erekat nothing more than hot air!
Or, if you want perceptive analyst Barry Rubin's take, try this: "Obama demanded, Netanyahu agreed and Abbas still rejected direct talks."
And you wonder why Georgie Mitchell gets migraines from his yo-yo act.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
TURKEY, IRAN, SYRIA AND HEZBOLLAH-
TURKEY-
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded today that Israel apologize for the nine deaths of Turkish IHH terrorists aboard the Mavi Marmara.
The Israeli government response should be swift; Israel will never apologize for the inflammatory and aggressive actions taken by the Turkish government by allowing and even encouraging the Hate Flotilla.
Israel should also demand from the Turks an immediate apology. From there the Israeli government should also make it her policy to champion the Armenian cause against the Turks at the UN and in the United States of America.
Until now Israel has been the main Turkish advocate in America, sadly using her pull to keep the Turks’ slate clean of one of the world’s most despicable atrocities ever committed. That must stop immediately.
Turkey is no longer an ally to either Israel or America, and anyone who says different is kidding himself. Turkey should no longer receive the grace an ally would receive.
I have been told to leave this subject alone, that it is old news and if Israel can have a friendship with Germany, then what the Turks did doesn’t apply at all today.
This is wrong. First off, the Jewish Nation has not forgiven the German Nation for the atrocities carried against them. We have moved on to a point, but we will never forget. On top of that the German Nation accepts responsibility for what it has done.
Germany accepts and recognizes sole responsibility for the Shoah. The German Nation has even asked the Jewish Nation for forgiveness.
The Turks, on other hand, waltz around pretending they are not responsible for the murder of over ONE MILLION ARMENIANS.
Now that Turkey has unofficially declared war on Israel, Israel is duty bound to fight for the million-plus Armenians killed at the hands of the Turks during the Armenian Genocide.
HEZBOLLAH, SYRIA AND IRAN-
The Sayyed of Beirut has apparently forgotten the important lesson he learned (and later admitted to) during the Lebanon War of 2006.
If one remembers, Hassan Nasrallah admitted he would not have given an okay for the cross-border attack that started the Lebanon War of 2006 had he known how Israel was going to respond.
Trying again to deflect attention away from bad news pointing at Hezbollah, Sheik Nasrallah tried to drag Israel into another confrontation on her northern border when he had a Shiite Lebanese Armed Forces commander instigate the attack on Israeli soldiers that lead to the death of Lt. Colonel Dov Hariri.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outplayed the Beirut Sheik and was not suckered into the trap of jumping into another war without planning.
So now Sheik Nasrallah goes to plan B: a live news conference in his bunker where he has been hiding since 2006.
What does the Sheik have to say? That Israel is actually responsible for the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He also contends that the UN Tribunal for the Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minster Rafik Hariri is nothing more than a Zionist ploy.
This should have just been brushed aside as insane jibber, jabber. The UN acting in the Zionists cause? You must kidding, Sheik! After all it was the government of Lebanon that asked for the UN to open the Tribunal into PM Hariri's death.
It is now common knowledge that the UN Tribunal for Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is set to assign blame on Hezbollah. When that happens it will also indirectly assign blame on Syria and Iran, Hezbollah’s two sugar-daddies.
There is no way Hezbollah would have done something this large without the green light from Syria and Iran.
Neither of the latter countries had a problem with giving the green light. Former PM Hariri was a thorn in their side, since he wanted a Hezbollah-, Syria- and Iran-free Lebanon. There were even rumors that his friendship with the USA could have lead to peace negotiations with Israel, making him considerably more than a mere thorn.
In our interesting times, though, we have The New York Times and its reporter Nada Bakri who actually hails the speech as a sign of how sophisticated Hezbollah has become!
Ms. Bakri tells her readers that the tape presented by Nasrallah of an Hezbollah prisoner, supposedly admitting to working for Israel and admitting to telling Hariri that Hezbollah was attempting to assassinate him is “sophisticated.”
She also tries to convince her readers that aerial photographs (easily acquired from Iran or even taken off the Internet) are proof of Hezbollah’s access to Israeli documents. Yeah, right.
But let’s return to the UN Tribunal for Lebanon: it, or its findings, may lead to the start of the next war between Israel and the Iranian client-states of Syria, Lebanon and Hamastan of Gaza.
Why? Largely because the Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Hamas governments have gotten pumped up on their own rhetoric.
Their short-term memory loss and the destructive wars they brought upon themselves have pushed them to the brink of war with Israel, yet again. This is a place that is very hard to back down from: one merely needs to hold a séance and ask the spirit of Gamel Abdel Nasser!
Just to make the situation every whackier, these governments have got it in their heads that Turkey will jump on board and fight along side them.
They are incapable of understanding that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is smart enough to know the difference between beating up and oppressing the Kurds and fighting the IDF.
So what can be done?
America wants Israel to sit tight, but she has been asking that of her ally for way too long. Iran, on the other hand, has been galloping towards nuclear weapons while destabilizing the Middle East and going “Yada, yada, yada” towards the West while doing it.
Israel won’t and can’t wait much longer to act.
So it would seem there is not much else she can do but prepare for war.
Yet again.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded today that Israel apologize for the nine deaths of Turkish IHH terrorists aboard the Mavi Marmara.
The Israeli government response should be swift; Israel will never apologize for the inflammatory and aggressive actions taken by the Turkish government by allowing and even encouraging the Hate Flotilla.
Israel should also demand from the Turks an immediate apology. From there the Israeli government should also make it her policy to champion the Armenian cause against the Turks at the UN and in the United States of America.
Until now Israel has been the main Turkish advocate in America, sadly using her pull to keep the Turks’ slate clean of one of the world’s most despicable atrocities ever committed. That must stop immediately.
Turkey is no longer an ally to either Israel or America, and anyone who says different is kidding himself. Turkey should no longer receive the grace an ally would receive.
I have been told to leave this subject alone, that it is old news and if Israel can have a friendship with Germany, then what the Turks did doesn’t apply at all today.
This is wrong. First off, the Jewish Nation has not forgiven the German Nation for the atrocities carried against them. We have moved on to a point, but we will never forget. On top of that the German Nation accepts responsibility for what it has done.
Germany accepts and recognizes sole responsibility for the Shoah. The German Nation has even asked the Jewish Nation for forgiveness.
The Turks, on other hand, waltz around pretending they are not responsible for the murder of over ONE MILLION ARMENIANS.
Now that Turkey has unofficially declared war on Israel, Israel is duty bound to fight for the million-plus Armenians killed at the hands of the Turks during the Armenian Genocide.
HEZBOLLAH, SYRIA AND IRAN-
The Sayyed of Beirut has apparently forgotten the important lesson he learned (and later admitted to) during the Lebanon War of 2006.
If one remembers, Hassan Nasrallah admitted he would not have given an okay for the cross-border attack that started the Lebanon War of 2006 had he known how Israel was going to respond.
Trying again to deflect attention away from bad news pointing at Hezbollah, Sheik Nasrallah tried to drag Israel into another confrontation on her northern border when he had a Shiite Lebanese Armed Forces commander instigate the attack on Israeli soldiers that lead to the death of Lt. Colonel Dov Hariri.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outplayed the Beirut Sheik and was not suckered into the trap of jumping into another war without planning.
So now Sheik Nasrallah goes to plan B: a live news conference in his bunker where he has been hiding since 2006.
What does the Sheik have to say? That Israel is actually responsible for the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He also contends that the UN Tribunal for the Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minster Rafik Hariri is nothing more than a Zionist ploy.
This should have just been brushed aside as insane jibber, jabber. The UN acting in the Zionists cause? You must kidding, Sheik! After all it was the government of Lebanon that asked for the UN to open the Tribunal into PM Hariri's death.
It is now common knowledge that the UN Tribunal for Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is set to assign blame on Hezbollah. When that happens it will also indirectly assign blame on Syria and Iran, Hezbollah’s two sugar-daddies.
There is no way Hezbollah would have done something this large without the green light from Syria and Iran.
Neither of the latter countries had a problem with giving the green light. Former PM Hariri was a thorn in their side, since he wanted a Hezbollah-, Syria- and Iran-free Lebanon. There were even rumors that his friendship with the USA could have lead to peace negotiations with Israel, making him considerably more than a mere thorn.
In our interesting times, though, we have The New York Times and its reporter Nada Bakri who actually hails the speech as a sign of how sophisticated Hezbollah has become!
Ms. Bakri tells her readers that the tape presented by Nasrallah of an Hezbollah prisoner, supposedly admitting to working for Israel and admitting to telling Hariri that Hezbollah was attempting to assassinate him is “sophisticated.”
She also tries to convince her readers that aerial photographs (easily acquired from Iran or even taken off the Internet) are proof of Hezbollah’s access to Israeli documents. Yeah, right.
But let’s return to the UN Tribunal for Lebanon: it, or its findings, may lead to the start of the next war between Israel and the Iranian client-states of Syria, Lebanon and Hamastan of Gaza.
Why? Largely because the Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Hamas governments have gotten pumped up on their own rhetoric.
Their short-term memory loss and the destructive wars they brought upon themselves have pushed them to the brink of war with Israel, yet again. This is a place that is very hard to back down from: one merely needs to hold a séance and ask the spirit of Gamel Abdel Nasser!
Just to make the situation every whackier, these governments have got it in their heads that Turkey will jump on board and fight along side them.
They are incapable of understanding that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is smart enough to know the difference between beating up and oppressing the Kurds and fighting the IDF.
So what can be done?
America wants Israel to sit tight, but she has been asking that of her ally for way too long. Iran, on the other hand, has been galloping towards nuclear weapons while destabilizing the Middle East and going “Yada, yada, yada” towards the West while doing it.
Israel won’t and can’t wait much longer to act.
So it would seem there is not much else she can do but prepare for war.
Yet again.
Monday, August 9, 2010
HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE
By Schmoel Yitzhak
* STATE (OF IDIOCY) DEPARTMENT: Over the decades -- dating back to pre-World War II days -- the American State Department has been singularly less than friendly to Jews and even less hospitable when it comes to Israel. Somehow, those who like to fantasize about the Clinton Family believed that with Queen Hilary now on the throne, Israel would get a better break from State.
Ha!
As usual, the joke is on Israel.
Because an Arab-launched rocket was fired -- and exploded -- in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, the U.S. State Department sent out a warning to Americans traveling in Israel. Stay away, if you can help it.
The sanity of such a decision by Queen Hilary's empire would be roughly equivalent to Israel's Foreign Ministry telling its citizens not to visit Washington, D.C. because of a spate of neighborhood gang killings in America's capital.
Let's face it, this State Department directive was no less than a blatantly idiotic, damaging move against what is supposed to be Uncle Sam's foremost ally in the Middle East.
It was sanctioned by Queen Hilary and -- indubitably -- with an approval stamp issued by her boss, President Obama.
One can only wonder when they'll wake up to the reality of who is a friend and which is not a nation to be trusted.
* THE MOSQUE MOCKERY: Funded by those who would weaken Israel into submission, the outfit J Street behaves as if it were taking orders from Tehran rather than supporting the J -- for Jewish -- State.
But judging by its endless anti-Israel rants, the J in J Street should stand for Jerks -- First Class!
Not surprisingly, J Street honcho Jeremy Ben-Ami -- whose outfit is in part funded by Israel's enemies -- supports the plan to build a monster mosque in the shadow of the destroyed New York City's Twin Towers.
Ben-Ami, along with many of the other bleeding-heart liberals, charges that the proposed Muslim religious center is being held to a tougher standard than other religious institutions would be.
This mosque mockery has nothing to do with religious freedom for Muslims.
A missive I received from FresnoZionism.org puts the reality as well as anyone, anywhere. To wit:
"The suggestion that Muslims are 'treated differently' than other religions is absurd. Nobody says they can't build yet another mosque in New York -- it's just this particular location that presents a problem. If those planes had been hijacked by Buddhist monks, then possibly some of us would feel funny about putting a monastery here, too. But they weren't."
If they are so hot to build a mosque in Manhattan, why not respect the demands that if the relatives of murder victims don't want a reminder of the murders next to the graves of their loved one, then IT COULD BE BUILT A MILE OR TWO AWAY.
Another insightful view from FresnoZionism.org:
"One of the reasons why Ben Ami has injected J Street into this controversyt is to help one of his bosses, Barack Obama.
"The administration is stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it craves Muslim affection too much to oppose the mosque, but yet is unhappy that Republicans are making an issue of it. So Ben-Ami can help by attacking the 'pandering politicians.'"
FACT: Almost sixty percent of likely New York State voters believe that the mosque should go somewhere else..
* CHOMSKY THE CHUMP: Too often to suit me, so-called "intellectual-academic" critics of Israel bear Jewish names.
Therefore, it often is assumed by the non-Jewish community, the world over that if these people with Jewish names do not like Israel, therefore there must be something wrong with the only democracy in the Mideast.
The Choamskys of the universe may carry Jewish names but their allegiance to the far left erase any genuine Jewishness to which they might profess.
British researcher Robin Shepherd summed it up thusly:
"Chomsky's political standing in the left is more important for him than his Jewish identity. That's why the extreme Jewish critics of Israel almost always come from the far left -- for them politics is the most important part of their identity.
"They are in thrall with a system of thought that happens to have as one of its main objects of belief an obsessive hatred of Israel."
In other words, for the chump Chomsky, et. al., this far left -- ideological -- religion comes before being Jewish.
Or, to put it in realistic terms, Chomsky and his ideological pals might as well be card-carrying members of Hamas for all their Jewishness!
* STATE (OF IDIOCY) DEPARTMENT: Over the decades -- dating back to pre-World War II days -- the American State Department has been singularly less than friendly to Jews and even less hospitable when it comes to Israel. Somehow, those who like to fantasize about the Clinton Family believed that with Queen Hilary now on the throne, Israel would get a better break from State.
Ha!
As usual, the joke is on Israel.
Because an Arab-launched rocket was fired -- and exploded -- in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, the U.S. State Department sent out a warning to Americans traveling in Israel. Stay away, if you can help it.
The sanity of such a decision by Queen Hilary's empire would be roughly equivalent to Israel's Foreign Ministry telling its citizens not to visit Washington, D.C. because of a spate of neighborhood gang killings in America's capital.
Let's face it, this State Department directive was no less than a blatantly idiotic, damaging move against what is supposed to be Uncle Sam's foremost ally in the Middle East.
It was sanctioned by Queen Hilary and -- indubitably -- with an approval stamp issued by her boss, President Obama.
One can only wonder when they'll wake up to the reality of who is a friend and which is not a nation to be trusted.
* THE MOSQUE MOCKERY: Funded by those who would weaken Israel into submission, the outfit J Street behaves as if it were taking orders from Tehran rather than supporting the J -- for Jewish -- State.
But judging by its endless anti-Israel rants, the J in J Street should stand for Jerks -- First Class!
Not surprisingly, J Street honcho Jeremy Ben-Ami -- whose outfit is in part funded by Israel's enemies -- supports the plan to build a monster mosque in the shadow of the destroyed New York City's Twin Towers.
Ben-Ami, along with many of the other bleeding-heart liberals, charges that the proposed Muslim religious center is being held to a tougher standard than other religious institutions would be.
This mosque mockery has nothing to do with religious freedom for Muslims.
A missive I received from FresnoZionism.org puts the reality as well as anyone, anywhere. To wit:
"The suggestion that Muslims are 'treated differently' than other religions is absurd. Nobody says they can't build yet another mosque in New York -- it's just this particular location that presents a problem. If those planes had been hijacked by Buddhist monks, then possibly some of us would feel funny about putting a monastery here, too. But they weren't."
If they are so hot to build a mosque in Manhattan, why not respect the demands that if the relatives of murder victims don't want a reminder of the murders next to the graves of their loved one, then IT COULD BE BUILT A MILE OR TWO AWAY.
Another insightful view from FresnoZionism.org:
"One of the reasons why Ben Ami has injected J Street into this controversyt is to help one of his bosses, Barack Obama.
"The administration is stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it craves Muslim affection too much to oppose the mosque, but yet is unhappy that Republicans are making an issue of it. So Ben-Ami can help by attacking the 'pandering politicians.'"
FACT: Almost sixty percent of likely New York State voters believe that the mosque should go somewhere else..
* CHOMSKY THE CHUMP: Too often to suit me, so-called "intellectual-academic" critics of Israel bear Jewish names.
Therefore, it often is assumed by the non-Jewish community, the world over that if these people with Jewish names do not like Israel, therefore there must be something wrong with the only democracy in the Mideast.
The Choamskys of the universe may carry Jewish names but their allegiance to the far left erase any genuine Jewishness to which they might profess.
British researcher Robin Shepherd summed it up thusly:
"Chomsky's political standing in the left is more important for him than his Jewish identity. That's why the extreme Jewish critics of Israel almost always come from the far left -- for them politics is the most important part of their identity.
"They are in thrall with a system of thought that happens to have as one of its main objects of belief an obsessive hatred of Israel."
In other words, for the chump Chomsky, et. al., this far left -- ideological -- religion comes before being Jewish.
Or, to put it in realistic terms, Chomsky and his ideological pals might as well be card-carrying members of Hamas for all their Jewishness!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
REASONS TO KEEP THE ASPIRINS HANDY, HONEY:
By Schmoel Yitzhak
* Haaretz reads as if it's funded by Hamas, Iran and Syria and edited by the clown running Libya.
* Turkey must have had the world's best public relations consultants for the past century when you consider that the Turks' mass killings of Armenians still has yet to be officially branded as "genocide."
* Am I mistaken or didn't Barack Obama -- campaigning in the 2008 election -- vow that, if elected, that most-blessed-be-he, Obama, would personally brand mass killings genocide?
* Poor Barack; so young to develop amnesia!
* Check out Caroline Glick's column in the weekend Jerusalem Post. Among other insights, she notes that, "The United States is abetting and aiding the war against Israel by supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Palestinian military. The U.S. won't stop until Israel demands that it stop." (It's a must read.)
* Should we be surprised at the United Nations employing a senior Hamas terrorist? Only if we believe that the sun comes up in the West.
* Issa al-Batran, the senior Hamas commander killed last month, was a teacher at a UN school in Al-Bureij. Nice to be on the UN payroll while moonlighting as terrorist.
* Were Rudy Giuliani still New York City's mayor, he would have vetoed plans for the Ground Zero mosque faster than you can say Arafat.
* Writing for Newsmax.com, Tawfik Hamid points out that "Radical Muslims and their sympathizers want to raise the giant mosque as a sign of victory of the jihadists over the United States."
* Not that it's my favorite description of Uncle Sam's commander-in-chief but columnist David Broder is on target when he brands Obama "The Empathizer In Chief."
* Key Question: When will he stop "empathizing" with Iran and the other Israel-haters?
* Then again, "empathizing" is too soft a description. Let's face it, the president is coddling, at best, appeasing, at worst. Mostly the latter.
* Ken Blackwell, Fellow of The National Academy of Public Administration and the Family Research Council, has X-rayed America's too-soft, too-late foreign policy rather well.
* Blackwell puts it this way: "Who's responsible for the serious downward spiral in the Mideast? When the Obama administration spends its first year 'extending an open hand' to the murderous mullahs in Tehran, and when it fails to do anything meaningful to stop Iran's march to nuclear weapons, when the administration stiff-arms the Israelis, the wolves of jihad gather."
* Why do I believe that Blackwell is right on? Because, as he concludes, "The wolves of jihad scent blood. Will this be one more chapter in the lamentable story of how weak and irresolute leadership leads us into war? We pray it doesn't happen."
* Unless Obama's policies take a firm and resolute turn against Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, the negative is more likely to emerge than the positive.
* Near the end of World War II, the Nazis forced the Judenrats to dispatch Jews to the death camps. Thanks to the "ultra-liberal, progressive, Jewish so-called intellectuals," such as Michael Lerner and Chaim Seidler-Feller in America, the term Juden-RAT has returned to use. The more this anti-Israel bunch attack the Middle East's only democracy, the more they appear more rodent-like and less Juden. (Check out J Street's anti-Israel policies and you'll see what I mean. And if you don't like Juden-RAT, try Jewish Quisling instead.)
* Another good point by Tawfik Hamid. "A Ground Zero mosque would signal to the Islamic world that the jihadists overt and covert attacks against America and its interests are succeeding and should be continued."
* Talk about fantasy thinking when it comes to Mideast peace, just check out anti-Israel New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at least once a month. Friedman is dreaming when he suggests that building of the Ground Zero mosque would be proof of American tolerance that will have a positive impact on the Muslim world. Sooner or later Friedman will extract his head and his computer from the sand. Most likely much too late.
* The Jerusalem Post's Sarah Honig is another who gets it. Don't miss her column this weekend, "A New Mideastern Religion." She emphatically notes that supporters of a "Two-State Solution" are either dreamers, phonies or both. As for Propped-Up Abbas and his Palestinian Authority high command, she writes that "They never truly espoused the cause of two-state harmony." In conclusion, she adds, "Abbas is terrified of the two-state solution!" Truer words never were spoken nor written!
* Haaretz reads as if it's funded by Hamas, Iran and Syria and edited by the clown running Libya.
* Turkey must have had the world's best public relations consultants for the past century when you consider that the Turks' mass killings of Armenians still has yet to be officially branded as "genocide."
* Am I mistaken or didn't Barack Obama -- campaigning in the 2008 election -- vow that, if elected, that most-blessed-be-he, Obama, would personally brand mass killings genocide?
* Poor Barack; so young to develop amnesia!
* Check out Caroline Glick's column in the weekend Jerusalem Post. Among other insights, she notes that, "The United States is abetting and aiding the war against Israel by supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Palestinian military. The U.S. won't stop until Israel demands that it stop." (It's a must read.)
* Should we be surprised at the United Nations employing a senior Hamas terrorist? Only if we believe that the sun comes up in the West.
* Issa al-Batran, the senior Hamas commander killed last month, was a teacher at a UN school in Al-Bureij. Nice to be on the UN payroll while moonlighting as terrorist.
* Were Rudy Giuliani still New York City's mayor, he would have vetoed plans for the Ground Zero mosque faster than you can say Arafat.
* Writing for Newsmax.com, Tawfik Hamid points out that "Radical Muslims and their sympathizers want to raise the giant mosque as a sign of victory of the jihadists over the United States."
* Not that it's my favorite description of Uncle Sam's commander-in-chief but columnist David Broder is on target when he brands Obama "The Empathizer In Chief."
* Key Question: When will he stop "empathizing" with Iran and the other Israel-haters?
* Then again, "empathizing" is too soft a description. Let's face it, the president is coddling, at best, appeasing, at worst. Mostly the latter.
* Ken Blackwell, Fellow of The National Academy of Public Administration and the Family Research Council, has X-rayed America's too-soft, too-late foreign policy rather well.
* Blackwell puts it this way: "Who's responsible for the serious downward spiral in the Mideast? When the Obama administration spends its first year 'extending an open hand' to the murderous mullahs in Tehran, and when it fails to do anything meaningful to stop Iran's march to nuclear weapons, when the administration stiff-arms the Israelis, the wolves of jihad gather."
* Why do I believe that Blackwell is right on? Because, as he concludes, "The wolves of jihad scent blood. Will this be one more chapter in the lamentable story of how weak and irresolute leadership leads us into war? We pray it doesn't happen."
* Unless Obama's policies take a firm and resolute turn against Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, the negative is more likely to emerge than the positive.
* Near the end of World War II, the Nazis forced the Judenrats to dispatch Jews to the death camps. Thanks to the "ultra-liberal, progressive, Jewish so-called intellectuals," such as Michael Lerner and Chaim Seidler-Feller in America, the term Juden-RAT has returned to use. The more this anti-Israel bunch attack the Middle East's only democracy, the more they appear more rodent-like and less Juden. (Check out J Street's anti-Israel policies and you'll see what I mean. And if you don't like Juden-RAT, try Jewish Quisling instead.)
* Another good point by Tawfik Hamid. "A Ground Zero mosque would signal to the Islamic world that the jihadists overt and covert attacks against America and its interests are succeeding and should be continued."
* Talk about fantasy thinking when it comes to Mideast peace, just check out anti-Israel New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at least once a month. Friedman is dreaming when he suggests that building of the Ground Zero mosque would be proof of American tolerance that will have a positive impact on the Muslim world. Sooner or later Friedman will extract his head and his computer from the sand. Most likely much too late.
* The Jerusalem Post's Sarah Honig is another who gets it. Don't miss her column this weekend, "A New Mideastern Religion." She emphatically notes that supporters of a "Two-State Solution" are either dreamers, phonies or both. As for Propped-Up Abbas and his Palestinian Authority high command, she writes that "They never truly espoused the cause of two-state harmony." In conclusion, she adds, "Abbas is terrified of the two-state solution!" Truer words never were spoken nor written!
Friday, August 6, 2010
NETANYAHU, OBAMA AND APPEASING LEBANON
The sniper attack by Lebanese Army soldiers on August 3rd. 2010 that killed Lt. Colonel Dov Hariri is a prime example of everything that is wrong with the Obama Middle-East policy.
This attack and its aftermath also indicate how politically savvy Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become.
Anyone who takes the time to read and inform themselves on the diplomatic and security issues that Israel faces today knows well enough that the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) have become nothing but stooges of Hezbollah and Iran.
Sadly President Barak Obama has been arming the LAF as a counter to Hezbollah’s militia. Now that Hezbollah influences the LAF, those arms will be used against Israel -- a disturbing situation for Israel, certainly, but also for the USA. In fact, President Obama should be worrying over whether it was an American-donated gun that ended the life of a father of four.
It makes no difference that he was a soldier; there is a UN cease-fire that was admittedly broken by the Lebanese forces. The UN itself -- far from a friend of Israel -- has openly stated that this fracas was the fault of the Lebanese snipers, who opened fire first.
This is not where it ends. This was a deliberate provocation by Hezbollah, using the Lebanese army as its trigger. Hezbollah wants to divert attention away from the UN Tribunal for Lebanon, which will undoubtedly name Hezbollah big wig Mustafa Badr al-Din responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese, PM Rafik Harari.
It’s not just Hezbollah that is afraid. Syria, Hezbollah’s sugar daddy, has been pushing to have the Tribunal closed. Why? Because everyone knows that Hezbollah would never have carried out an assassination of this magnitude -- in the Arab world, mind you-- without Syria’s okay.
Israel’s restraint, considering Lebanon’s provocation, is an example of how PM Netanyahu has matured into a true world leader. The Bibi of old would have gone to war in seconds, like former PM Ehud Olmert did in 2006. That would have been a political victory for none other than Sheik Hassan Nashrallah.
It is never easy for us here in Israel to accept the deaths of our soldiers. I myself at first was angry with Netanyahu for not ordering Lebanon to be blasted away. Had we done that, we would have given Nashrallah and his thugs their “get out of jail free card” from the UN Lebanon Tribunal.
On the other hand, this incident makes it more apparent than ever that the appeasement shown the Arab world -- at Israel’s expense -- by the Obama administration has made America look weak. That is not good for Israel, America and her Arab allies.
Turkey has run into Iran’s arms. All the achievements gained by the Bush administration in Lebanon have been lost in a year and a half. Hezbollah, shrugging off UN resolution 1701 has rearmed and is reigning supreme again (that means Iran). Hamas, also almost destroyed militarily during operation Cast Lead has been allowed to rearm in Gaza.
All the intelligence circulating now says the Arabs do not want a war. That, incidentally, is also what all the intelligence was saying before October 6th. 1973 … the YOM KIPPUR War.
I don’t buy it. intelligence invariably fails to take into account the fallibility of Arab leaders and their unceasing ability to believe their own rhetoric. Bashir Assad and Hassan Nashrallah are not of the same mold as Anwar Sadat. They are made of the same mold as Gamal Abdel Nassar. We must never forget that, believing his own rhetoric, Nassar led Egypt into the Six Day War.
Assad and Nashrallah, believing their own lies and a weakened America are now driving full speed ahead, with Iran navigating towards war with Israel.
This attack and its aftermath also indicate how politically savvy Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become.
Anyone who takes the time to read and inform themselves on the diplomatic and security issues that Israel faces today knows well enough that the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) have become nothing but stooges of Hezbollah and Iran.
Sadly President Barak Obama has been arming the LAF as a counter to Hezbollah’s militia. Now that Hezbollah influences the LAF, those arms will be used against Israel -- a disturbing situation for Israel, certainly, but also for the USA. In fact, President Obama should be worrying over whether it was an American-donated gun that ended the life of a father of four.
It makes no difference that he was a soldier; there is a UN cease-fire that was admittedly broken by the Lebanese forces. The UN itself -- far from a friend of Israel -- has openly stated that this fracas was the fault of the Lebanese snipers, who opened fire first.
This is not where it ends. This was a deliberate provocation by Hezbollah, using the Lebanese army as its trigger. Hezbollah wants to divert attention away from the UN Tribunal for Lebanon, which will undoubtedly name Hezbollah big wig Mustafa Badr al-Din responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese, PM Rafik Harari.
It’s not just Hezbollah that is afraid. Syria, Hezbollah’s sugar daddy, has been pushing to have the Tribunal closed. Why? Because everyone knows that Hezbollah would never have carried out an assassination of this magnitude -- in the Arab world, mind you-- without Syria’s okay.
Israel’s restraint, considering Lebanon’s provocation, is an example of how PM Netanyahu has matured into a true world leader. The Bibi of old would have gone to war in seconds, like former PM Ehud Olmert did in 2006. That would have been a political victory for none other than Sheik Hassan Nashrallah.
It is never easy for us here in Israel to accept the deaths of our soldiers. I myself at first was angry with Netanyahu for not ordering Lebanon to be blasted away. Had we done that, we would have given Nashrallah and his thugs their “get out of jail free card” from the UN Lebanon Tribunal.
On the other hand, this incident makes it more apparent than ever that the appeasement shown the Arab world -- at Israel’s expense -- by the Obama administration has made America look weak. That is not good for Israel, America and her Arab allies.
Turkey has run into Iran’s arms. All the achievements gained by the Bush administration in Lebanon have been lost in a year and a half. Hezbollah, shrugging off UN resolution 1701 has rearmed and is reigning supreme again (that means Iran). Hamas, also almost destroyed militarily during operation Cast Lead has been allowed to rearm in Gaza.
All the intelligence circulating now says the Arabs do not want a war. That, incidentally, is also what all the intelligence was saying before October 6th. 1973 … the YOM KIPPUR War.
I don’t buy it. intelligence invariably fails to take into account the fallibility of Arab leaders and their unceasing ability to believe their own rhetoric. Bashir Assad and Hassan Nashrallah are not of the same mold as Anwar Sadat. They are made of the same mold as Gamal Abdel Nassar. We must never forget that, believing his own rhetoric, Nassar led Egypt into the Six Day War.
Assad and Nashrallah, believing their own lies and a weakened America are now driving full speed ahead, with Iran navigating towards war with Israel.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
ENOUGH OF GIDEON LEVY
At what point will it be determined that Gideon Levy has crossed the line of journalistic integrity? When will Haaretz finally decide to muzzle its Israel-hating attack dog?
In Thursday’s Haaretz Levy took it upon himself to blame slain Lt. Col. Dov Hariri and the whole IDF for the violation of UN cease-fire 1701 by the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Calling the IDF and it commanders arrogant, Mr. Levy took us on one of the most fantastic and ludicrous adventures that make Wonderland look like a reality TV show.
He compares the LAF actions to that of IDF actions on the Israel, Gaza border. Obviously Mr. Levy couldn't care less that our soldiers on the Gaza border are dealing with IED’s on a daily basis and the people who shoot are Hamas, Islamic Jihad or some other Palestinian organizations operatives trying to plant those IEDs.
I’m sure he’d much rather see our boys blown to pieces by those IEDs than prevent the terrorists from planting them.
That’s right, Gideon Levy equates a father of four -- murdered while directing a routine job of maintenance on our Border Fence with Lebanon, to Islamic Terrorists trying to plant explosives intended to kill our soldiers.
The excuses he gives for the LAF are so sickening that one has to truly wonder how Haaretz could print something as vile as this Op-ed piece, without at least a twinge of conscience. Maintaining journalistic freedom is one thing, but crossing a certain line of integrity is totally another thing.
What makes this article even more sick is that Levy admits clearly that the IDF did nothing wrong. Yes, THE IDF WAS arrogant (in Levy’s mind) for not listening to a UNIFIL request to postpone the work. This work was being done in Israeli territory; the IDF did coordinate it with UNIFIL – Gideon even admits this.
Instead of performing the duty of journalist and presenting facts – which he claims to be doing early in the piece, Mr. Levy instead offers up some distortions and a couple of outright falsehoods.
Levy claims that BOTH LAF soldiers and UNIFIL soldiers shouted at the IDF to stop work on cutting down shrubs that would make perfect hiding spots for Hezbollah IEDs.
Here is the problem: every report, even that of UNIFIL (no friend to Israel) states otherwise. Every report states that the LAF -- and only the LAF -- started yelling curses at the IDF soldiers. UNIFIL soldiers never shouted a thing at the IDF. Why? Because they knew well enough that the IDF was working in sovereign territory of Israel. The LAF soldiers next yelled at the IDF to leave the area, and the IDF boys responded by yelling back that they were in Israeli territory.
Just after that an LAF sniper shot Lt. Col. Dov Hariri dead with a head shot.
The following is very important: Lt. Col. Hariri was not anywhere close to the fence. He was supervising the operation from a point well above the maintenance work. He was killed intentionally, with NO preceding LAF shots fired in the air (as posited by Mr. Levy).
Even if the LAF then did fire shots in the air, they still broke the cease-fire and responsibility lies ONLY with them. The LAF cannot dictate what Israel does on her sovereign territory. If it were to be that way, IDF soldiers would be picking the Lebanese army apart on a daily basis.
What Mr. Levy also did was to bury the real reason why the LAF ambushed and killed an IDF Lieutenant Colonel. Hezbollah and Syria are incredibly afraid of the UN Tribunal of Lebanon. They know the UN Tribunal is about to put responsibility on Hezbollah bigwig Mustafa Badr al-Din for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minster Rafik Hariri. That is, the UN Tribunal for Lebanon is going to blame Hezbollah and Syria for the assassination. If Levy were to report something close to the truth, it would defeat his ability to blame Israel for every idiotic action carried out by the Arabs.
What Gideon Levy wrote today is a hideous insult to the father of four children, killed while doing nothing more than his job, in his country’s territory. What Gideon Levy wrote today gives approval for this illegal and provocative behavior of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
What Mr. Levy wrote today is yet another in a long line of his insults to Israel and Israelis. Worse, his claim of IDF arrogance is an astounding case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The real truth, Mr. Levy, is that your “better-than-thou” attitude is as worthless as the paper you write for.
In Thursday’s Haaretz Levy took it upon himself to blame slain Lt. Col. Dov Hariri and the whole IDF for the violation of UN cease-fire 1701 by the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Calling the IDF and it commanders arrogant, Mr. Levy took us on one of the most fantastic and ludicrous adventures that make Wonderland look like a reality TV show.
He compares the LAF actions to that of IDF actions on the Israel, Gaza border. Obviously Mr. Levy couldn't care less that our soldiers on the Gaza border are dealing with IED’s on a daily basis and the people who shoot are Hamas, Islamic Jihad or some other Palestinian organizations operatives trying to plant those IEDs.
I’m sure he’d much rather see our boys blown to pieces by those IEDs than prevent the terrorists from planting them.
That’s right, Gideon Levy equates a father of four -- murdered while directing a routine job of maintenance on our Border Fence with Lebanon, to Islamic Terrorists trying to plant explosives intended to kill our soldiers.
The excuses he gives for the LAF are so sickening that one has to truly wonder how Haaretz could print something as vile as this Op-ed piece, without at least a twinge of conscience. Maintaining journalistic freedom is one thing, but crossing a certain line of integrity is totally another thing.
What makes this article even more sick is that Levy admits clearly that the IDF did nothing wrong. Yes, THE IDF WAS arrogant (in Levy’s mind) for not listening to a UNIFIL request to postpone the work. This work was being done in Israeli territory; the IDF did coordinate it with UNIFIL – Gideon even admits this.
Instead of performing the duty of journalist and presenting facts – which he claims to be doing early in the piece, Mr. Levy instead offers up some distortions and a couple of outright falsehoods.
Levy claims that BOTH LAF soldiers and UNIFIL soldiers shouted at the IDF to stop work on cutting down shrubs that would make perfect hiding spots for Hezbollah IEDs.
Here is the problem: every report, even that of UNIFIL (no friend to Israel) states otherwise. Every report states that the LAF -- and only the LAF -- started yelling curses at the IDF soldiers. UNIFIL soldiers never shouted a thing at the IDF. Why? Because they knew well enough that the IDF was working in sovereign territory of Israel. The LAF soldiers next yelled at the IDF to leave the area, and the IDF boys responded by yelling back that they were in Israeli territory.
Just after that an LAF sniper shot Lt. Col. Dov Hariri dead with a head shot.
The following is very important: Lt. Col. Hariri was not anywhere close to the fence. He was supervising the operation from a point well above the maintenance work. He was killed intentionally, with NO preceding LAF shots fired in the air (as posited by Mr. Levy).
Even if the LAF then did fire shots in the air, they still broke the cease-fire and responsibility lies ONLY with them. The LAF cannot dictate what Israel does on her sovereign territory. If it were to be that way, IDF soldiers would be picking the Lebanese army apart on a daily basis.
What Mr. Levy also did was to bury the real reason why the LAF ambushed and killed an IDF Lieutenant Colonel. Hezbollah and Syria are incredibly afraid of the UN Tribunal of Lebanon. They know the UN Tribunal is about to put responsibility on Hezbollah bigwig Mustafa Badr al-Din for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minster Rafik Hariri. That is, the UN Tribunal for Lebanon is going to blame Hezbollah and Syria for the assassination. If Levy were to report something close to the truth, it would defeat his ability to blame Israel for every idiotic action carried out by the Arabs.
What Gideon Levy wrote today is a hideous insult to the father of four children, killed while doing nothing more than his job, in his country’s territory. What Gideon Levy wrote today gives approval for this illegal and provocative behavior of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
What Mr. Levy wrote today is yet another in a long line of his insults to Israel and Israelis. Worse, his claim of IDF arrogance is an astounding case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The real truth, Mr. Levy, is that your “better-than-thou” attitude is as worthless as the paper you write for.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
USE YOUR IMAGINATION -- AND THEN WHAT?
By Schmoel Yitzhak
Imagine for a moment that you are president of the United States and a top deputy places an urgent message in your hands which reads:
ROCKETS FIRED AT MIAMI BEACH -- ONE HOTEL GUEST KILLED, MANY INJURED.
Shortly thereafter -- in this fantasy -- presidential advisors inform Barack Obama that the destructive missiles were unleashed from Cuba.
If you were leader of the world's most powerful nation, what would you do next?
On December 8, 1941 -- following the attack on Pearl Harbor -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war on Japan.
More likely than not, a rocket attack against the American mainland these days would prompt even an ultra-ultra-ultra moderate such as Obama to order a retaliatory attack that would hopefully signal an end to the original unprovoked hostilities.
The aforementioned scenario, however, is imaginary; and Fidel Castro is fortunate that it is.
Unfortunately, a similar script has unfolded in the Middle East and the response, so far, has been muted, to say the least.
Eilat, which happens to be Israel's answer to Miami Beach, has been the latest victim of terrorist rocketry along with its sister port, Jordanian Aqaba.
Mind you, these were not firecrackers left over from Independence Day. We're talking about steel that kills and the Jordanian victim just happens to be Exhibit Z.
As for Exhibits A through Y, all you have to do is count the literally thousands of real, live, kill-as-many-Jews-as-possible rockets that have rained on Israel courtesy of our dear, democratic -- by their skewed standards -- friends called Hamas.
Until recently a combination of inferior rocketry, Israeli air raid shelters and sheer luck has limited the physical destruction -- if not the high anxiety -- among Israel's human targets, as any citizen of Sderot will attest.
So far, Israel's response to the Eilat attack has been unrealistically muted, no doubt -- ironically -- because of Obama pressure as the politically worried American leader persists in an unrealistic attempt to bring Arabs to the peace table.
Had Miami Beach been similarly targeted in the manner of Eilat, you could bet your bottom shekel that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff would have hastily convened as pressure mounted on the president to do something. Chances are that Havana & Co. would then have been so thoroughly pummeled by Uncle Sam that Castro's response would have been UNCLE! in Spanish, English and Red Cross-ese with about 40,000 white flags unfurling every other minute from Cuban windows.
What, then, is Israel waiting for?
When a country turns cheek after cheek as rocket attacks such as the one that exploded in Eilat continue, the chances are that the cheek will disappear along with its owner.
And that ain't good!
Imagine for a moment that you are president of the United States and a top deputy places an urgent message in your hands which reads:
ROCKETS FIRED AT MIAMI BEACH -- ONE HOTEL GUEST KILLED, MANY INJURED.
Shortly thereafter -- in this fantasy -- presidential advisors inform Barack Obama that the destructive missiles were unleashed from Cuba.
If you were leader of the world's most powerful nation, what would you do next?
On December 8, 1941 -- following the attack on Pearl Harbor -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war on Japan.
More likely than not, a rocket attack against the American mainland these days would prompt even an ultra-ultra-ultra moderate such as Obama to order a retaliatory attack that would hopefully signal an end to the original unprovoked hostilities.
The aforementioned scenario, however, is imaginary; and Fidel Castro is fortunate that it is.
Unfortunately, a similar script has unfolded in the Middle East and the response, so far, has been muted, to say the least.
Eilat, which happens to be Israel's answer to Miami Beach, has been the latest victim of terrorist rocketry along with its sister port, Jordanian Aqaba.
Mind you, these were not firecrackers left over from Independence Day. We're talking about steel that kills and the Jordanian victim just happens to be Exhibit Z.
As for Exhibits A through Y, all you have to do is count the literally thousands of real, live, kill-as-many-Jews-as-possible rockets that have rained on Israel courtesy of our dear, democratic -- by their skewed standards -- friends called Hamas.
Until recently a combination of inferior rocketry, Israeli air raid shelters and sheer luck has limited the physical destruction -- if not the high anxiety -- among Israel's human targets, as any citizen of Sderot will attest.
So far, Israel's response to the Eilat attack has been unrealistically muted, no doubt -- ironically -- because of Obama pressure as the politically worried American leader persists in an unrealistic attempt to bring Arabs to the peace table.
Had Miami Beach been similarly targeted in the manner of Eilat, you could bet your bottom shekel that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff would have hastily convened as pressure mounted on the president to do something. Chances are that Havana & Co. would then have been so thoroughly pummeled by Uncle Sam that Castro's response would have been UNCLE! in Spanish, English and Red Cross-ese with about 40,000 white flags unfurling every other minute from Cuban windows.
What, then, is Israel waiting for?
When a country turns cheek after cheek as rocket attacks such as the one that exploded in Eilat continue, the chances are that the cheek will disappear along with its owner.
And that ain't good!
TRUE ISRAEL 2-
Here is how my day starts off. I wake up in the morning to the clatter and banging of my three amazing children.
After dragging myself out of bed, getting my anxious little tykes their cereal I finally get to sit down and attempt to savor my first of many cups of coffee of the day.
After failing horribly to enjoy my coffee I make sure my older Kids, Odel (6) and Ariel (4) are dressed, have brushed their teeth and are officially ready to head off to Gan (preschool).
As most parents know, just achieving the ability to open our front door and actually leave the house can be as difficult as negotiating Middle-East peace, but I finally get there.
Out the door I go pushing Avigail (almost 16 months old) in her stroller with Odel and Ariel in tow.
After discussing the make and model of every car parked along the way with Ariel, listening to Odel comment about how rude it is that people do not pick up their dogs’ excrement and Avigail baby babble at me, we finally make it to Gan.
Big kisses and long hugs are freely given; I love my kids and miss them just about every second of the day, so leaving them is hard.
Before I leave them I do what I always do: meet and greet their friends who come running up to me. Ahhhh, yes this is when I really get to soak in how racist my country is, as I’m greeted by Ethiopian, Moroccan, Iraqi, Libyan, Turkish, Yemeni, Druze and European kids each day.
These are the countries and heritages that happily surround my children at school. Anyone who “knows” that Israel is a racist, apartheid state should definitely NOT come to my children’s Gan and risk having their delusions shattered!
After Avigail and I beat a hasty retreat back to the house (as always, it is hot -- even at eight o’clock in the morning), we then take our second journey of the day: picking up mommy from work.
This can be harder than getting my family out of the house in the morning. First I drive through a nearby field (I have four-wheel drive, a necessity at times), to avoid the nearby road clogged with morning rush. I notice that the Beduouin has his herd of goats and sheep out, and we wave at each other, as I carefully avoid several sheep.
Finally we hit the pavement and begin the slog toward Rishon Lezion. Driving Israeli roads is invigorating, to put it mildly. But invariably it makes one truly appreciate living! After dodging some crazies, I make it to my wife Lilach’s work.
Lilach works at a home for people who are mentally challenged. These people are our second family. Lilach does not make much but could never leave the job because of her attachment to the people she cares for. Today, Aurit an older woman, refused to get on the bus that takes all the residents to work. Something had angered her and Lilach decided it was best not to force her to go to work. Now that Aurit had cooled down, I was told we were going to take her to the job spot.
Fine; it’s on the way home, anyway … sort of!
After dropping Aurit off at work and dodging maniacal moped drivers, we finally make it home.
Now Avigail and I head out on journey number three: taking our three dogs for a walk.
Yael (Saluki), Duka (French Bulldog) and Lady (West Highland Terrier) guide us through the grand park of Rehovot Hollandit (our development). After watching them chase each other and partake in some serious horse play (and faithfully picking up their poo), Avigail and I finally head home.
By this time it is nine thirty in the morning. The temperature has already reached 95 degrees; all three dogs, Lilach, Avigail and I are burnt out. We still have a whole day of playing, paying bills, cleaning, doing laundry, preparing food, stressing on mortgage and debt.
All of the above is what you are not told about Israel.
This is what those news channels neglect to tell you. All the crazies out there who demonize, condemn and delegitimize my country don’t want you to know this.
All the sturm und drang against Israel is nothing more than an attempt to hide the dirty little secret that … blare of trumpets … we Israelis just want to be left to live our lives, to eke out our daily existence.
The majority of us want peace and are ready for compromise. Why? Because we want a better future for our children. I want a better future for Odel, Ariel and Avigail.
I want that better future; I just won’t accept it at the expense of their self-determination. I want a future where all the Odels, Ariels and Avigails can grow up in the democratic, Jewish State … at peace with the state of Palestine.
After dragging myself out of bed, getting my anxious little tykes their cereal I finally get to sit down and attempt to savor my first of many cups of coffee of the day.
After failing horribly to enjoy my coffee I make sure my older Kids, Odel (6) and Ariel (4) are dressed, have brushed their teeth and are officially ready to head off to Gan (preschool).
As most parents know, just achieving the ability to open our front door and actually leave the house can be as difficult as negotiating Middle-East peace, but I finally get there.
Out the door I go pushing Avigail (almost 16 months old) in her stroller with Odel and Ariel in tow.
After discussing the make and model of every car parked along the way with Ariel, listening to Odel comment about how rude it is that people do not pick up their dogs’ excrement and Avigail baby babble at me, we finally make it to Gan.
Big kisses and long hugs are freely given; I love my kids and miss them just about every second of the day, so leaving them is hard.
Before I leave them I do what I always do: meet and greet their friends who come running up to me. Ahhhh, yes this is when I really get to soak in how racist my country is, as I’m greeted by Ethiopian, Moroccan, Iraqi, Libyan, Turkish, Yemeni, Druze and European kids each day.
These are the countries and heritages that happily surround my children at school. Anyone who “knows” that Israel is a racist, apartheid state should definitely NOT come to my children’s Gan and risk having their delusions shattered!
After Avigail and I beat a hasty retreat back to the house (as always, it is hot -- even at eight o’clock in the morning), we then take our second journey of the day: picking up mommy from work.
This can be harder than getting my family out of the house in the morning. First I drive through a nearby field (I have four-wheel drive, a necessity at times), to avoid the nearby road clogged with morning rush. I notice that the Beduouin has his herd of goats and sheep out, and we wave at each other, as I carefully avoid several sheep.
Finally we hit the pavement and begin the slog toward Rishon Lezion. Driving Israeli roads is invigorating, to put it mildly. But invariably it makes one truly appreciate living! After dodging some crazies, I make it to my wife Lilach’s work.
Lilach works at a home for people who are mentally challenged. These people are our second family. Lilach does not make much but could never leave the job because of her attachment to the people she cares for. Today, Aurit an older woman, refused to get on the bus that takes all the residents to work. Something had angered her and Lilach decided it was best not to force her to go to work. Now that Aurit had cooled down, I was told we were going to take her to the job spot.
Fine; it’s on the way home, anyway … sort of!
After dropping Aurit off at work and dodging maniacal moped drivers, we finally make it home.
Now Avigail and I head out on journey number three: taking our three dogs for a walk.
Yael (Saluki), Duka (French Bulldog) and Lady (West Highland Terrier) guide us through the grand park of Rehovot Hollandit (our development). After watching them chase each other and partake in some serious horse play (and faithfully picking up their poo), Avigail and I finally head home.
By this time it is nine thirty in the morning. The temperature has already reached 95 degrees; all three dogs, Lilach, Avigail and I are burnt out. We still have a whole day of playing, paying bills, cleaning, doing laundry, preparing food, stressing on mortgage and debt.
All of the above is what you are not told about Israel.
This is what those news channels neglect to tell you. All the crazies out there who demonize, condemn and delegitimize my country don’t want you to know this.
All the sturm und drang against Israel is nothing more than an attempt to hide the dirty little secret that … blare of trumpets … we Israelis just want to be left to live our lives, to eke out our daily existence.
The majority of us want peace and are ready for compromise. Why? Because we want a better future for our children. I want a better future for Odel, Ariel and Avigail.
I want that better future; I just won’t accept it at the expense of their self-determination. I want a future where all the Odels, Ariels and Avigails can grow up in the democratic, Jewish State … at peace with the state of Palestine.
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